NSF Awards Graduate Research Fellowships and Honors to Natural Sciences Students
Dozens of College of Natural Science students received recognition through the National Science Foundation program.
The National Science Foundation recently announced Graduate Research Fellowships (NSF GRFP) and honorable mentions for dozens of College of Natural Sciences graduate students and graduating undergraduates at The University of Texas at Austin.
The NSF GRFP is a prestigious and competitive fellowship that supports outstanding graduate research across the country. Fellows are anticipated to become knowledge experts who can contribute significantly to research, teaching and innovations in science and engineering. These individuals are crucial to maintaining and advancing the nation’s technological infrastructure and national security as well as contributing to the economic well-being of society at large.
Fellows receive a three-year annual stipend of $37,000 as well as a cost-of-education allowance of $16,000 to conduct research at any accredited U.S. graduate school.
This spring, six Texas Science undergraduates and nine graduate students learned they had won fellowships. Additionally, two undergraduate students and 12 graduate students were awarded honorable mentions. Below are the recipients, their fields of study and their research focuses.
2024 Graduate Research Fellowship Recipients
- Luisa Marie Velasco, Mathematics graduate student — Analysis
- Audrick Moses Pyronneau, Mathematics graduate student — Topology
- Shankar Padmanabhan, Mathematics undergraduate — Natural Language Processing
- Leo Orshansky, Computer Science undergraduate student — Unconventional Computing, Quantum Computing
- Sara Nixon, Chemistry graduate student — Chemistry of Life Processes
- Lacie Larschan Levy, Biology undergraduate student — Geosciences, Chemical Oceanography
- Alexandra Lee, Physics graduate student — Condensed Matter Physics
- Mathea Kurtz-Shaw, Marine Science graduate student — Geosciences, Arctic-Antarctic
- Stephane Hatgis-Kessell, Computer Science undergraduate student — Artificial Intelligence
- Jennie Elizabeth DeVore, Ecology, Evolution and Behavior graduate student — Animal Behavior
- Hailey A. Currie, Physics undergraduate student — Physics of Living Systems
- Jason R. Boynewicz, Physics graduate student — Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics
- Duaa N. Ansari, Chemistry undergraduate student — Chemistry of Life Processes
- Scott A. Wicker - Chemistry graduate student — Chemical Structure, Dynamics and Mechanism
- Hollis B. Akins, Astronomy graduate student — Astronomy and Astrophysics
2024 Honorable Mentions
- Alexandra Boville, Ecology, Evolution and Behavior graduate student — Evolutionary Biology
- Tynan Gardner, Cell and Molecular Biology graduate student — Systems and Molecular Biology
- Ravi K. Koka, Physics undergraduate student — Nuclear Physics
- Zachary Lee, Mathematics graduate student — Mathematical Sciences
- Crystal B. Li, Human Development and Family Sciences graduate student — Human Development and Family Sciences
- Connor A. Painter, Astronomy graduate student — Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Livia Raulinaitis, Ecology, Evolution and Behavior graduate student — Ecology
- Abhishek Shivkumar, Mathematics graduate student — Topology
- Michael H. Updike, Physics undergraduate student — Theoretical Physics
- Arthur King Zhang, Computer Science graduate student — Robotics
- Elijah S. Garcia, Chemistry graduate student — Chemistry of Life Processes
- Jason Ho, Computer Sciences graduate student — Computer Architecture
- Jacob L. Block, Computer Sciences graduate student — Machine Learning
- Tamara M. Rivera, Marine Science graduate student — Marine Biology
Adapted from a post by the Graduate School.
